Tuesday, September 18, 2012

September used to be the seventh month of the old Roman calendar and its
name literally means seventh "month," so this month is brought to you
by 7. Write wherever the prompt inspires you, fiction or non-fiction, prose or poetry. Do try and keep things at a PG-13 level, though.

I have been working on my novel, so that is what has been in my head. I decided to post an excerpt. Pretty much because I couldn't think of anything else. I may be stretching the prompt to it's limit. Oh and this is my first novel so be gentle. I can take constructive criticism if you feel inclined to do so.

Below are my fellow bloggers and a link to their posts, please be sure to read more "Seven" posts.

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“You
are the seventh, there are six others like you.”

Niles felt the mans presence
before he heard him speak. But he remained silent with his head down. He sat on
the floor of his latest cell. His feet planted in front of him on the cold
cement and he rested his arms on his knees letting his hands hang but every
once in a while he clenched his fists when he felt himself start to tremble.

‘Six others?’ Niles thought. ‘I’m the
seventh like them? Like what?’

He
tried to place the pieces of the complicated puzzle together since he found
himself living in this nightmare. Some of the pieces were missing, some were
upside down. His eyes widened and darted back and forth searching the floor for
what, he didn’t know. He refused to acknowledge the man talking to him several
feet away from the bars of his new residence.

Niles began to struggle to
breathe. It was almost as if he forgotten how to bring air into his lungs and
then let it back out. His temples pounded with each beat of his heart and each
beat came faster than the last. The man spoke to him,

“Niles you can control
that. You are in control of your breathing and heart rate. Search your mind,
you have capabilities you’ve never had before. The average person uses only 10%
of their brain. You have been given a gift. Think of your brain as a maze with
unopened doors. These are doors you can now open.”

The
mans tone had a hint of desperation mixed with excitement,

“Niles you have to work
with me if you want to leave this place. I’m sorry about Derek. We did everything
we could to save him, I promise you that.”

Bringing
Derek up so soon after Niles
watched him die brought his rage to the forefront again. He was on his hands
and knees now, dragging air into his chest. He looked at his arms streaked in
dried blood. Memories of the events that unfolded only minutes before flooded
his head and pounded on the inside of his skull as if trying to escape. He
would like nothing more than to let those memories go but instead he grabbed
his head on each side convinced if he let go it would explode. He let out a
guttural cry and shouted,

“God
damn it.”

“Niles listen to me.”

The
man’s hint of desperation remained but did not intensify. His voice stayed calm
and continued,

“Niles go to your brain
stem. You can find it, think. Do you see it? Open that door, you’ll find what
you need.”

Niles heard the man through
the pounding in his head and his rasping breath. He didn’t understand but with
his hands on either side of his head and his forehead now on the floor he
thought of where his brain stem was located.

“The
injections……….”

He
squeezed his eyes shut.

“Yes
that’s the area. Do you see it Niles?”

Niles searched, thick gray
clouds twisted and turned making him cry out in pain again. He continued,
trying to look past the murky fog. Something was there, he could feel it and the
air began to clear. He saw a distorted door knob. It stretched into an oval
shape, changed colors from a blurry purple to a muddled black. An array of
colors began to pixelate looking for a spot to form as the oval quivered and when
it snapped into a round shape the colors followed settling on a brilliant gold.

“Open
it Niles.”

The
door knob became clear and it turned to the right. Niles saw the door it was attach to which had
opened about two inches. He tried to see what was behind it, as he peered
through the slight gap the door quickly swung back with such forced that Niles dropped to his side
and landed on his back. The swirling gray air disappeared as if sucked out with
a vacuum. Niles
stopped gasping for air and his breathing became normal. His heart rate slowed
down which stopped the thumping in his temples.

He
rolled over to his stomach, back on his hands and knees, reached out to the
bars of his cell and pulled himself up until he was standing. He stared at the
man in front of him as he fought off a wave of nausea. They looked at each
other for a moment and when the dizziness in Niles head slowed to a speed he could trust he
asked,

“What
just happened? What did you bastards do to me?”

“Get
some rest, we’ll talk tomorrow. I’ll make sure you get something to eat. We’ll
talk Niles, I
promise.”

Niles watched him walk down
the short hall and out the double swinging doors. He remained where he stood
gripping the bars until his knuckle where white, his eyes widened and his jaw
clenched shut. Did he just see what he thought he saw? He heard the man’s voice
in his head but his mouth did not move.